In a distributed system such as a data center, the distributed system may include a coordinator that is responsible for managing the resources of the distributed system. It is often convenient for the conventional distributed system to include a synchronization mechanism to allow the synchronization of the state of resources managed by the coordinator. For example, the coordinator assigns leases of resources to clients in the distributed system where a lease grants a client responsibility for a resource for a limited period of time. It is important for the coordinator and the client to be synchronized regarding the time period that the client holds the lease for the resource. Conventional distributed systems may rely on sophisticated time synchronization systems, such as atomic clocks, or check and set operations to determine when a lease assigned to a client expires. However, the time synchronization systems required in conventional distribution systems increase the complexity of the distributed systems. Furthermore, clock skew between the coordinator, clients, and lessees in the distributed system as well as network latency increase the difficulty in managing the resources in the distributed system.